The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, announced this Sunday the three places on the Seine where bathing will be authorized from 2025 once the quality of the river waters improves for the 2024 Olympic Games.
“Today I swim in the Seine and it is only the beginning”Hidalgo told the press while a group of bathers jumped into the river, including two of his deputy mayors.
The first three bathing spots chosen are the so-called “Marie arm”, located on the right bank facing the island of Saint-Louis, in the center, as well as the Bercy shore (east), opposite the National Library (east). , and the port of Grenelle, opposite the island of Swans (west).
“From 2025 it will be possible to bathe in the Seine thanks to the Games”, Hidalgo proclaimed in a message on social networks.
The City Council detailed in a statement that the three bathing spaces will have security surveillance and a pontoon for access to the water. The swimming areas will be delimited by buoys and there will be changing rooms, showers and lockers.
Since 2016, the central government and the municipalities of the Paris region have been making significant investments (1.4 billion euros) to improve the quality of the waters of the Seine and the neighboring Marne in order to fulfill the old promise that they can accommodate bathers.
For now, next year’s Olympic Games will already see how the triathlon and long-distance swimming events take place on the Seine, with the starting point on the historic Alexander III bridge.
The announcement came one day after the City Council launched a new edition of Paris Beaches, which offers until September 3 summer activities on the banks of the Seine and the Bassin de la Villette canal, with sports, leisure and cultural activities.
Sunbathing areas with sun loungers and parasols, sports groundsgames for children or temporary pools in the canal are some of the attractions of both areas, they returned last year, with great success in attendance, after two exercises absent due to the pandemic.